Danilo Pérez, pianist, composer, philanthropist, educator, and artistic director for the Berklee Global Jazz Institute will visit Berklee’s Valencia campus in Spain with Berklee students for a week filled with activities that will conclude with a concert produced by the Panamanian artist.

Pérez has performed with such artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Jack DeJohnette, Steve Lacy, Lee Konitz, Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, Tito Puente, Tom Harrell, Gary Burton, and Roy Haynes, and has been part of the Wayne Shorter quartet since 2001. He is an artist for Peace for UNESCO, and founder of the Festival de Jazz in Panama. Peréz is currently on tour with his latest album, Panamá 500, and will perform at Club Clamores in Madrid on March 9 and 10.

The week of March 3, Peréz, along with BGJI students from different countries—Israel, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Japan, Canada, and the U.S.—will exchange experiences and music with students of the Valencia campus. The campus is composed of students from more than 30 different cities across the world and with the Valencian community. The week’s activities include clinics with Pérez, jam sessions, studio recordings, collaborations with symphonic bands, and a concert open to the public on Friday, March 7, at the Martin I Soler auditorium at the Palau de les Arts, Reina Sofía.

Through BGJI, Peréz brings a global jazz vision where “there are no borders."

"At Berklee there are students from the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe, but the language is the same; through music they communicate without any problems,” says Peréz. The main purpose of the BGJI is to share a program designed to foster creativity and musicality through different disciplines and real-world experiences. Students have the opportunity to explore their own creativity to find their voice as artists, grow as musicians, human beings, and to contribute to the natural environment.

Says Peréz, “This generation of young musicians is taking the reins, exchanging bullets for musical notes. I have faith and full confidence in their capacity to use their instruments as weapons for social change.”